Expelled Indian Diplomats Heading Home

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, February 8, 2003

Associated Press Writer

Five Indian diplomats left Pakistan's capital on Monday, heading home after being ordered out of the country last week in a retaliatory expulsion.

Sudhir Vyas, the acting ambassador of the Indian embassy, and four other Indian embassy employees left on an arduous 12-hour land journey on Monday. Earlier, India had expelled five Pakistani diplomats it accused of funneling money to separatists in Kashmir.

Pakistan accused the Indian Embassy employees of "actions unbecoming their status," a term that usually refers to spying.

These were the second round of expulsions this year. Four diplomats from each side were expelled last month.

India and Pakistan withdrew their ambassadors last year after an attack on India's Parliament in December 2001. India blamed the attack on Pakistan's spy agency and two Pakistan-based Islamic militant groups.

Islamabad denied the allegations. But increased tension between the two countries generated fears of a war that could involve the use of nuclear weapons.

Intense international pressure defused much of the tension and the hostile neighbors began pulling back their armies from the border to peacetime locations in October. However, the ambassadors have not returned.

The latest expulsions wrecks hopes the neighbors might soon begin talks to settle their perennial dispute over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir.

New Delhi has long accused Islamabad of backing the 12-year insurgency in Kashmir, which is divided into Indian and Pakistani sectors. Both countries claim the region in its entirety and have fought two wars over it.

Pakistan says it offers only diplomatic and moral support to the rebels.

Pakistan's expelled diplomats and embassy staff were to leave India Monday also traveling overland from New Delhi to their common border.

India ordered Jalil Abbas Jilani, acting head of Pakistan's diplomatic mission in New Delhi, to leave the country accusing him of funneling money to separatists in the Indian part of Kashmir. Pakistan denied the charges. Four other Pakistan Embassy staff also were ordered to leave India.